Mesh Fabric-Covered Seat Assembly of Office Chair

ABSTRACT

A mesh fabric-covered seat assembly of an office chair includes a mesh fabric provided on a seat frame. A peripheral fitting strip is sewn to the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric and has sewing grooves to which the mesh fabric can be sewn. A peripheral fitting groove extends along the left, front, and right sides of the seat frame, and a fixing surface is formed by a rear portion of the bottom surface of the seat frame. To assemble, the mesh fabric is stretched so that the peripheral fitting strip can be tightly fitted into the peripheral fitting groove to keep the mesh fabric taut. Then, the rear end of the mesh fabric is tightly pulled and fixed to the fixing surface with staples. Since only one side of the mesh fabric needs stapling, the mesh fabric can be easily and rapidly installed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to an assembly of an office chair seat frame and a mesh fabric. More particularly, the left, front, and right sides of the seat frame are concavely provided with a peripheral fitting groove; a peripheral fitting strip is sewn to and extends continuously along the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric and fitted tightly into the peripheral fitting groove; and the rear end of the mesh fabric is stapled to the seat frame. As the mesh fabric is installed mainly by a fitting process, the assembly operation is simple and can be carried out rapidly with ease.

2. Description of Related Art

The seat of an office chair may incorporate a mesh fabric as disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. M495786. According to the '786 patent, the bottom surface of the seat frame is peripherally and concavely provided with an annular groove. The mesh fabric is tightly stretched over the seat frame and has its edges folded inward onto the bottom surface of the seat frame. Then, a plurality of pressing strips are pressed into the groove to clamp the edges of the mesh fabric between the pressing strips and the wall of the groove. The pressing strips are subsequently fixed in the groove with screws or staples to keep the mesh fabric taut and secured to the seat frame.

To ensure that the mesh fabric is firmly fixed to the seat frame and will not sag easily, a large number of screws must be used to fasten the pressing strips (i.e., the spacing at which the screws are provided cannot be too large). Only by doing so will there be sufficient fixing points for tightening the entire mesh fabric. However, the large number of screws render the assembly process complicated and time-consuming.

Moreover, even though the pressing strips are fastened in the groove with screws that also pierce through the mesh fabric, and the mesh fabric is clamped between the pressing strips and the wall of the groove, it is actually the screws that keep the mesh fabric from sliding and detachment. The portion of the mesh fabric that extends between each two adjacent screws is held in place only by the clamping force of the pressing strips and the groove wall. As the clamping force is limited, the pressing strips and the seat frame must be provided with corresponding thorn-like positioning posts and positioning holes to further secure the mesh fabric.

The positioning posts and the positioning holes do contribute to securing the mesh fabric to some degree, but the portion of the mesh fabric that lies in the gap between each two adjacent positioning posts is still not properly fixed. These portions are kept in position solely by the clamping force of the pressing strips and therefore remain vulnerable to the pulling and stretching forces generated by the chair being sat on repeatedly. When the tension of the mesh fabric gradually reduces as a result of repeated sitting, the mesh fabric becomes loose.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art, namely the complicated and labor-intensive assembly process involving the pressing strips, which fix the mesh fabric to the seat frame by clamping, and the mesh fabric's tendency to sag, the present invention provides a mesh fabric-covered seat assembly in which: a continuous peripheral fitting strip is sewn to the left, front, and right sides of a mesh fabric; a peripheral fitting groove is provided on the left, front, and right sides of a seat frame so that the peripheral fitting strip can be tightly fitted into the peripheral fitting groove; and the rear end of the mesh fabric is folded onto and stapled to a fixing surface formed by the bottom surface of the seat frame. As the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric can be rapidly fixed to the seat frame without screwing or nailing, the installation of the mesh fabric is simpler than in the prior art.

The technical solution adopted by the present invention includes: stretching a mesh fabric tightly over a seat frame so that the mesh fabric can be sat on; providing a continuous peripheral fitting groove along the periphery—or more particularly along the left, front, and right sides—of the seat frame; forming a fixing surface on a rear portion of the bottom surface of the seat frame; sewing a continuous peripheral fitting strip to and along the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric; fitting the peripheral fitting strip tightly into the peripheral fitting groove; pulling the rear end of the mesh fabric tightly and folding the rear end of the mesh fabric onto the fixing surface; and fixing the rear end of the mesh fabric to the fixing surface with a plurality of fasteners such as staples.

According to the above, the peripheral fitting strip sewn to the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric is tightly fitted into and thus fixed in the peripheral fitting groove of the seat frame while the mesh fabric is elastically stretched. This allows the foregoing three sides of the mesh fabric to be rapidly secured in place without using screws or staples. The assembly process is therefore simple and can be completed speedily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front assembled perspective view of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear exploded perspective view of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the front side of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a lateral side of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the rear side of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1˜FIG. 5, the present invention includes a seat frame 1 and a mesh fabric 2 tightly stretched over the seat frame 1 in order to be sat on. The periphery of the seat frame 1 is concavely provided with a peripheral fitting groove 11, which extends along the left, front, and right sides of the seat frame 1, and a rear portion of the bottom surface of the seat frame 1 forms a fixing surface 12. A flexible peripheral fitting strip 3 is sewn to and extends continuously along the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric 2 and is therefore generally U-shaped. Each of the upper and lower sides of the peripheral fitting strip 3 is concavely provided with a sewing groove 31 in which the mesh fabric 2 can be fixed by sewing. The purpose of the sewing grooves 31 is to receive and hide the sewing threads so that the peripheral fitting strip 3 can be tightly fitted into the peripheral fitting groove 11.

To assemble, the mesh fabric 2 is elastically stretched, and the peripheral fitting strip 3 is directly fitted into the peripheral fitting groove 11 on the left, front, and right sides of the seat frame 1 to keep the mesh fabric 2 in tension. Then, the rear side of the mesh fabric 2 is pulled outward, folded onto the fixing surface 12 formed by the rear portion of the bottom surface of the seat frame 1, and fixed to the fixing surface 12 with a plurality of fasteners such as staples. It is worth mentioning that a decorative fixing strip 4 is fixed to the fixing surface 12 along with the rear side of the mesh fabric 2 such that the rear side of the mesh fabric 2 is pressed between the decorative fixing strip 4 and the fixing surface 12.

Once tightly fitted into the peripheral fitting groove 11 of the seat frame 2, the peripheral fitting strip 3 sewn to the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric 2 is retained in, and kept from falling out of, the peripheral fitting groove 11, thanks to the tautness or tension of the mesh fabric 2 in the left and right directions. Thus, the present invention spares the trouble of having to fix the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric 2 with fasteners such as screws or staples, and the installation of the mesh fabric 2 is made simple to significantly shorten the time required for the installation.

In addition, as the left, front, and right sides of the mesh fabric 2 and the peripheral fitting strip 3 are sewn together in a continuous manner, the mesh fabric 2 can stay taut and will not get loose when pulled in any direction, as long as the peripheral fitting strip 3 is tightly fitted in the peripheral fitting groove 11 of the seat frame 1. The mesh fabric 2 can hence withstand pressure longer than its prior art counterparts. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A mesh fabric-covered seat assembly of an office chair, comprising a mesh fabric tightly stretched over a seat frame in order to be sat on, characterized in that: the seat frame is peripherally and concavely provided with a continuous peripheral fitting groove extending along a left side, a front side, and a right side of the seat frame and has a fixing surface formed by a rear portion of a bottom surface of the seat frame; and the mesh fabric is provided with a peripheral fitting strip sewn to and extending continuously along a left side, a front side, and a right side of the mesh fabric, the peripheral fitting strip is configured to be tightly fitted into the peripheral fitting groove, and the mesh fabric has a rear end to be tightly pulled and folded inward onto the bottom surface of the seat frame and fixed to the fixing surface with fasteners.
 2. The mesh fabric-covered seat assembly of claim 1, wherein the peripheral fitting strip has an upper side and a lower side each concavely provided with a sewing groove to which the mesh fabric is able to be sewn. 